| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: than from the Hospital adventure. He told me that, from the fear
of their suspecting that he had a hand in Manon's escape, he had
gone that morning to the Hospital and asked to see her,
pretending not to know anything of what had happened; that they
were so far from entertaining the least suspicion of either of
us, that they lost no time in relating the adventure as a piece
of news to him; and that they wondered how so pretty a girl as
Manon Lescaut could have thought of eloping with a servant: that
he replied with seeming indifference, that it by no means
astonished him, for people would do anything for the sake of
liberty.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: virtue that there is in man. They are a wearisome topic, and I am
anxious to get back to the sphere in which criticism is free.
ERNEST. The sphere of the intellect?
GILBERT. Yes. You remember that I spoke of the critic as being in
his own way as creative as the artist, whose work, indeed, may be
merely of value in so far as it gives to the critic a suggestion
for some new mood of thought and feeling which he can realise with
equal, or perhaps greater, distinction of form, and, through the
use of a fresh medium of expression, make differently beautiful and
more perfect. Well, you seemed to be a little sceptical about the
theory. But perhaps I wronged you?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: if there are, now and then, things that are exceptionable. All
government includes some necessary hardness. General rules will
bear hard on particular cases.' This last maxim my father seemed
to consider a settler in most alleged cases of cruelty. After he
had said _that_, he commonly drew up his feet on the sofa, like a
man that has disposed of a business, and betook himself to a nap,
or the newspaper, as the case might be.
"The fact is my father showed the exact sort of talent for
a statesman. He could have divided Poland as easily as an orange,
or trod on Ireland as quietly and systematically as any man living.
At last my mother gave up, in despair. It never will be known,
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
